Links Magazine | The Best Of Golf | Charting a New Course

‘She has a huge name’
With the growing popularity of the women’s game worldwide, perhaps it may not take long for perceptions to change, and the consensus is that Sorenstam could be the game’s first big-name female architect, especially abroad. In the coming years, she has the chance to bring awareness to women in golf design, just as she did by playing against the men in the 2003 Colonial.

“No question she’ll be successful,” says Stephenson. “She has a huge name and the financials behind her. I’ve never seen anyone dissect the game better than she did. She’s Hogan-like of how to be No. 1, and I’m sure she’ll do the same with this.”

For now, her $500,000 fee is a bargain compared with those of her male player-architect counterparts like Nicklaus, Woods and Greg Norman. Architecture is not yet at the top of her priority list but her priorities are rapidly changing. After an injury-plagued 2007 season, Sorenstam has returned to her last year on tour with a vengeance, winning three times already this year. Next year she will have more time to devote to her design business, in between getting married and starting a family.

“When I have the chance, I’m going to throw myself into it and do it right,” she says. “I want to dedicate my time and want to represent it well. Just like you have to practice in golf, you have to practice this. If you asked me 10 years ago if someone would ask me to design a golf course, I don’t know if that would have happened. Why would little me from a little country and a little town, why would I be asked to design a course? But now that I have, it’s pretty cool and I want to do more.”